Friday, June 16, 2006

"right about now, it happen to be, Appleblim, in full control..."

Oh, another wonderful wonderful FWD>>>Tinged with a funny emotion, for me. Not even sure if it has a name. Kind of a part–reversed nostalgia? Mixed with a not unpleasant sense of getting older?Or whatever.I used to go and see Laurie, what – 11 years ago or something, playing ridiculously good basslines with his then band, oh damn it they were tight. They made these complex time signatures and ghost notes and extra bars and missing beats and all that and more look so effortless and, well words fail me here. I had a big soft spot for them. They swung like some kind of twisted hackney funkadelic.

And then there I am, time passed, time passing, watching Laurie in the booth at FWD, still still still with the bass…All those H.E.N.C.H. tunes – on that system – Pinch “punisher” - Girder, how huge did that sound? – how do you keep a level head when you’ve got mala and coki and scream and yunx and all walking past you, saying hi,?Appleblim, mate. what a set. It felt really like - a moment.

But there was more.Only the third time I’ve seen Youngsta in action, I think, but easily my favourite. More than anyone else he can take two tunes and create a third. He’s the one who really makes the most of all that space in dubstep. Just the way he takes two tunes where the snares fall in different places, keeping them mixed together for ages. It’s a bit dreamlike, somehow. Intangible. Like an optical illusion. A ghost tune that doesn’t really exist – only then and there whilst the crossfader is in the middle. I dread the rewinds – I just want to get lost in the Youngsta tunnel…

And Kode 9. Easily my favourite set by him, by far. Opening with the Congos, Lee Perry echoed boombox sounding great, and then we were off...“got to find my way...far away from home” what the hell is that tune? And then what, is this a Burial remix – Kode? Or by Burial himself? So many slicing offbeat swingbeat otherbeat hi hats. And 9 samurai just hit home for me, finally. That cavernous synth bassline, descending like it’s going down some basement stairs with a dark glint in it’s eye. Not coming back. Not coming back.